9:15 one of those commanders is an imposter! I think it's briggs, he's wearing richards' face from a few moments earlier

LAYzhun AYtranzhair and yeah, i fought there to learn to speak all those languages.

I wish u would tell us who and what ur talking about/who at the very start of each epsiode.

@@pnutz_2 xz vibz

Is that a Revell He-177 plane in the background?

What's even more ludicrous is the how they planned to get that carrier moved to the pacific? Go over the artic ocean, the British and Soviets aren't just gonna let her go thru there. And there is a ton of ice to cross. Around Africa, I'm sure the British and American navies would have a field day. Via south America, look at what happened to the Graf Spee. The idea screams of desperation on behalf of Japanese officials.

"We just wanted to look at it. Study it for...uh...curiosity. The Emperor has a hobby in them. What? You'd like to study Kido Butai more closely in exchange? Yes. About that. It's engaged in a naval operation in...hmm...Antarctica? We're looking to establish a secret research facility there. What? Herr Hitler wants to see it in person? That's his thing? He loves occult research bases in obscure and cold locations? *hangs up in a panic*" "I think they're on to us."

@@BenGrem917 Fun fact: the Graf Zepplin design was at least partially based on Akagi, which makes this scenario even more odd. "Yeah, you know how we let you look at our homework that one time? Can we borrow yours for a bit? No, of course we're not going to just submit it as ours, don't be silly"

hahaha

Also: the American press celebrated the victory, it wouldn't be hard for the news to reach German ears and eyes

Ritchie became a decent if not an outstanding Corps Commander in 1944-1945 at Normandy and North West Europe under Montgomery's command , in 1942 at North Africa , Western Desert Campaign , he was undermined and set up to fail by his immediate superior Claude Auchinleck who when realised he was about to be kicked back to India where he belonged , first threw all blame of Gazala mess on Ritchie's shoulders then began to raise a spectacle and went into tantrum like "an offended film star" (exact quote of British Imperial Chief of Staff Alan Brooke's description of Auk)

If you had played C64 games Ritchie is the best commander in "Victory in the Desert" I think was called.

@@merdiolu The Auk is the only reason crusader didnt turn into a total loss. The fuck are you smoking? If anybody needed to be booted it was Churchill for constantly demanding stupid offensives while shifting resources around from theatre to theatre

"Anybody see Ritchie!?"

@@kanedakrsa and also starving millions of Indians to death

Thanks I didnt know that, I always assumed they were named by the Russians, especially because the Germans often simply used numbers to describe things instead of names.

They also had names like "Fort Cheka", "Fort OGPU" and "Fort Siberia"

@@matheusgu In the summer of 1942, on the way to Stalingrad, some Germans were photographed in a dugout called "Villa Russenpech" ("Russian Bad Luck Villa") because some Red Army soldiers they killed in a clash were buried nearby. Whether the Germans' own luck held out in the coming months is doubtful.

I guess when reporting their progress to Hitler, it sounded better to say that after days of heavy fighting, they managed to capture Fort Stalin. Instead of just saying they managed to capture an unnamed bunch of pillboxes.

I can do It.

@Order & Chaos Well, can do it per year of the conflict.

Definitely

With Eww style ding dings😃

In the intro "phone calls" who is Indy talking to anyway?

"Tell me... this is a tank battalion, correct?" "Yes." "I see. So... do you have any tanks in your tank outfit?" "Sorry, we're fresh out."

@@Raskolnikov70 😂😂😂.

@@tigertank06 "This tank battalion is no more! It has ceased to be! This is an ex-battalion!"

@@Raskolnikov70 Sounds like the Russian 4th Tank Army, which about this time (as the Russian joke went) is an army with 4 tanks.

so many times in history were British troops the "lions led by donkeys".

wait until we get to leningrad in few years :D i mean its in progress but it just barely started.

The Germans had the same issue here that they had trying to besiege Leningrad. Because of geography there was no way they could completely surround it, and they didn't have enough air or sea assets to completely cut it off from resupply. Adding in more air power eventually did the trick in Sevastopol, not something they could pull off elsewhere later in the war as the Soviet air force begain to recover and start to fight for air superiority again.

@@Raskolnikov70 Bet the Germans wished they had invested more in their navy.

@@nicholasconder4703 Turkey was blocking an access into the Black Sea.

@@Overlord734 Nah, you just use the rail network and ship them across the continent (ha, ha). Or perhaps not so funny - the British did that in Africa during WW1.

Fun fact: Soviet forces take Sevastopol for 3 weeks instead of 8 months

@@TheSunchaster the Germansnever felt the need to rebuild the fortress after they take it, the operation to take crimea in 1944 are hillariously easy for the soviet, compare to the German operation in 1941 and 1942

I wonder where the Black Sea fleet was anchored. Would it have been more prudent to make sure the fleet is neutralized to prevent any landings I’m sure a fortress city is well stocked with supply’s but those don’t last forever Cutting off any resupply and more over the ability to withdraw would be prudent. I personally have always found this battle to interesting because it took Artillery and Fortifications to the extreme.

@@markmierzejewski9534 Black Sea fleet was in Novorossiysk, Tuapse, Poti (Kuban and Georgian coasts). It made a huge job supplying Sevastopol, but didn’t try to support the fortress with its guns like it was in Leningrad

@@briantarigan7685 nonsense, get more info. And about fight for the isthmus too.

My respects to your grandfather. I collect every reasource about Africa and Mediterranean Theaters

Thanks for sharing your grandfather's war time story. And thanks to your grandfather for his service.

Threw his medals away? He didn’t give his medals to you guys?

@@tigertank06 He did it before they were born probably. Disillusioned by the loss of his comrades. Not everyone thought they were fighting a just war and/or that the sacrifice was worth it.

Both my father and uncle fought in the Western Desert, my father in the Desert Air Force, my uncle as a communications officer (I don't know which unit). My uncle took part in the retreat from Gazala (oops, spoiler). One story I was told is that during the retreat my uncle was in a staff car with an officer when they spotted some tanks laagered in a wadi. Not sure whose tanks they were, the officer got out, walked down to the tanks, rapped on the top of the turret and asked, "I say, anyone in there?", to which the response was, "Wie war das noch?" or something to that effect. The officer then jumped down, walked back to the staff car, and they took off at high speed. Gives you an idea how confused the situation was.

@-Umut Deniz- LOL

"The rocket worked perfectly except for landing on the wrong planet."

Gather 'round while I sing you of Wernher von Braun; A man whose allegiance is ruled by expedience. Call him a Nazi, he won't even frown "Nazi, Schmazi!" says Wernher von Braun kzfaq.info/get/bejne/itB0eNZ4v7LGmaM.html

ayyy Tom Lehrer gang!!

@@OnionChoppingNinja it's amazing because most people will remember him from the elements song

Yep Bir Hakeim gave its name to a fair number of French streets, squares, etc. In Bordeaux for instance Place Bir Hakeim sits just across the bridge from Place Stalingrad, putting both battles at the same level of symbolic significance.

And with good reason. It demonstrated not only French military prowess, but also that the Allies did have the weapons to fight the Germans if used effectively by a competent commander.

When the Frre French got back to the main british line, they were honoured by the britishin a "march past". But M.P.Koenig noticed that a group of jewish soldiers who had fought beside the french were refused participation in the parade, Koenig insisted they march beside the french WITH THE JEWISH FLAG. "Kol Ha kavod" = "All the Respects" to M.P.Koenig !!

Shame De Gaulle takes all of the glory

The French fought very well in North Africa, this notion that the French always ran away is absurd!

@Pantelis Tzimas They werent "allowed" to leave. Their push towards Dunkirk was risky enough to get them outflanked. Which is why they were ordered to stop pushing

@Pantelis Tzimas They were not allowed to leave , Germans in each time underestimated British sealift capacity and overestimated their own capabilities to overwhelm British Commonwealth forces before they were evacuated

Maybe they're counting France as one combined eviction?

@Pantelis Tzimas Being afraid that the Allies could break out and null your entire progress is a valid reason. Theres a thin line in Mobile Warfare between being bold and being stupid and the Germans were rather limited in terms of ressources and manpower. Advancing further *might* have turned out to be successfull, but you cannot have hindsight over something you're currently doing. Besides, these 300.000 men escaped with barely any equipment, so they werent of much use for years to come anyway. What *really* got them fucked were the Soviet Union not only being undefeated, but re-emerging with millions of soldiers, barely contestable air superiority, artillery and so on. And thats on top of the Americans swooping in.

@Pantelis Tzimas It's easy to look back in time and see the flaw in the German caution, but in war things are never that clear, information is never certain, and a smart general has to balance what is aggressive vs what is hubris. It is very possible the current story line of Hitler pausing the attack against the will of his generals is sour grapes. Far more cautious were the French and British for leaving Poland to perish and then participating in the Phony war when they could have taken initiative... But all alternate history is, essentially fabricated. What happened is what happened.

Important to be noted

Oh man i think this is going to be a tragic story.

Then the whole world invades her privacy right after what the Nazis did to her.

I hope someone got her a ballpoint pen to go with it.

Thank you for mentioning it

Funniest shit I've ever heard

“Wubba lubba dub dub”

That WINS!!!!

I'm really enjoyign the ebb and flow of watching it week to week. It's so clear that some weeks are extremely important and exciting while many others are business as usual. I imagine this natural progression of the war allows them to focus on the important weeks and take some time out when things are simpler.

I'm enjoying this series, Indy makes learning fun and he doesn't gloss over Nazi atrocities like some other historians do.

Let's not forget a lot of 1st Free French Brigade were colonial troops from Senegal , Chad or elite Foreign Legion units etc even a company of Palestanian Jews. But yes..they prepared their positions very well and made Panzer Army Afrika to fight for every mile of it. Pierre Koenig was a great general no doubt. What is most impressive is their tenacity to hold despite contant Luftwaffe air raids (over 1.300 sorties)

@@merdiolu not only Palestinian Jews but also German Jews were part of that division. Hence their determination is rather understandable ^^

@@Cancoillotteman "Surrender, Frenchies, and you will be well treated!" "Pretty sure you won't once you find out who I am, I'll pass."

A few fun facts -The unit maning the AA gun were the fusilier marins who were literal sailors... ... in the middle of a desert -When Rommel arrived he asked the french to surrender, for answer the replied with a cannon -Rommel asked a second time for their surrender by sending a kubelwagon with a german officer to the fort. The sentinel at the door was german... After several minutes the german officer left with another no drove to his lines and... Did I mention the minefield ? The officer at to get back on foot while the legionnary insulted him for "Waking him up" -For 3/4 of the battle the french send convoy for ammo, food Water and evac the wounded. The first day Koenig said to an english driver in of the convoy that he could stay for diner ! -Rommel realized about the convoy. One day he waited that two of them left in the dunes and Rommel send two messerschidt they were both shot down by a AA gun mounted at the back of one of the trucks.

@@clesjikoandromas2061 One ' s gotta love the balls of the Foreign Legion ^^

Man your comment made me laugh 😂 I mean, how did they even think that they could get a carrier around half the world in a time of war?

If they knew the specs of the Graft Zeppelin, I think Japan wouldn't have wanted it even if they got it for free. sm

@@mattwoodard2535 to be fair to the GZ, it was Germany's very first carrier. No country can build excellent military equipment without prior experience.

@@michaelkovacic2608 True, it was commissioned in 1936 & was still in construction by this time. 6 years & they're still building 1 Carrier

@@iDeathMaximuMII Early in the war, the GZ would probably have been quite useful, but by 1942, the window of opportunity had passed.

I would say %75 percent. Due to Rommels own self glorification and Nazi regime propaganda combined with deification of Rommel and Afrikakorps by Churchill and several British generals (Auchinleck) on field and British press to mask bad command performance , pre war neglect of British army and strategic mistakes of British Army during wartime to keep spirits up along with Churchill's strategic medlling during wartime added with post war Cold War politics to symbolise German military in an honorable way in NATO , Rommel the Supeman myth was born

All of it. Same goes for his success in France in 1940. Don't forget he was going against the BEF then.

"Ironically, one of the reasons for his towering reputation was due to his opponents. While most enemy generals had only ever received short shrift from British leaders, the British built up a myth around this man as a 'genius'. Churchill even went so far as to name him in the House of Commons." BBC Rommel in the Desert text

well, I would say partly, but to win victories against a numerically superior enemy, you have to be at least a half-decent general it's not like he was winning victory after victory through luck, he simply saw and understood the British weak points and took advantage of them.

@@theredhunter4997 One of the big reasons is because he was reading US Army Colonel Bonnar Fellers wireless reports sent from Cairo to Washington due to Italian decryption of US State Department Black Code cryption system and second lax radio security of Eighth Army during combat that was decoded by Signal Intercept Company 621

Fo all the effort to bring them and operate them, those big ass Guns are pretty much useless in the siege itself, they never play decisive action, the best thing they did during the siege is a single 60 cm calibre mortar shell from the Karl Gerat self-propelled mortar no. III, nicknamed Thor, knocked out Maxim Gorky's second turret, damaging the weapon. This was the only success of the German super-heavy guns, which did not have an impact commensurate with their expense.

@@mangonel Karl: Oh you have no idea

Shouldn't that have read "climbs 3-story tall ladder, THEN slaps the barrel"?

@@Raskolnikov70 Karl: *pulls out megaphone* I said we call this the Super Big Iron!

@Pantelis Tzimas For a single successful use that tied up a full regiment of troops? Not really. The RAF Tall Boys and Grand Slams were way more effective.

That also made him to miss big picture and staff duties and logistical operations , I mean seems glamorised and romantic leading the front but it is not always indiction of sucessful generalship

@@merdiolu I agree , but he usually had very capable assistants back in HQ to manage those things in WW 1 and WW 2. Given the inability of Italians to secure basic supplies and even worse fighting capabilities I think Rommel did quite well in Africa against all odds. Considering Rommel's past in WW1 He was maybe the worse option as a commander to work with the Italians though :/

It is incredible what you can find in tool sheds sometimes

That was actually something new for me, who has a degree in history. I didn't know the Japanese had approached the Germans about buying the carrier. I couldn't even imagine the logistics of trying to get that thing into the Pacific past the Royal and American Navies. LOL

Japanese-modified Graf Zeppelin when?

@@timothyhouse1622 The only somewhat possible way I could think of to get that ship to japan would be hoisting the japanese flag an trying to skirt along the north coast of russia. But I am pretty sure there was too much ice at the time.

@@timothyhouse1622 News to me, too. I really wonder what the response was? And, yes! It would be an epic effort to make delivery had the deal been done. Did Germany simply say, 'Nein!'? Why would they have? The ship was pretty much useless to them. A fat pile of cash, or barrels of oil, would have been of immediate, desperate, use. Or did the realization that getting the ship to Japan would be nearly impossible, torpedo the idea?

@@gildor8866 Yeah, good luck towing a hulk through the Atlantic and Indian Ocean without getting intercepted.

Mostly due to lax British Eighth Army wireless security and decryption and interception of US Colonal Bonnar Fellers reports about British situation sent by US "Black Code" decoded regularly by Grman Wireless Intercept Company 621 in Afrikakorps HQ

Just send it via Amazon?

Specially since it would have to be towed.

Easily done! You slap a Portuguese flag on it and make believe! If you get stopped, do a comedy routine! If they're laughing, they're not shooting!

what about forming a carrier strike group, with escort and everything ?

@@JuanPerez-vv5lk Japan or Germany?

Well, there is a war going on ... !

Meanwhile the person on the other end of the line is like "Sir, this is a Wendy's. Did you mean to place an order for takeout?"

Quite plausible. The Axis never had the troops to keep everything under complete control and watch every mile of coastline. In addition to much of the occupied USSR not really being under their control. The issuing of the "Commando Order" was an expression of frustration as much as anything else. They couldn't stop raids so they killed those they could catch.

I can't be the only person thinking "wait a sec... the French can fight?" I'm not even trying to be sarcastic or snarky, we just haven't seen it up until now, even in France. It's like they're finally catching up to military tactics post-1918 and figuring out how to counteract the Germans' combined arms assaults.

There's Monte Cassino too

@@samarkand1585 Yep, general June brilliantly managed to break the stalemate on the italian front

@@motmot8879 Juin

@@samarkand1585 I know, i was using the English name for all the english speakers

Gotta love it when a single weapon requires laying kilometers of track and requires an entire regiment to use it.

@@nicholasconder4703 yeah but it’s strengths!!! Shit could level and the bride city

@@MikeJones-qn1gz Only if you have complete air superiority. Otherwise, TARGET!

Big Cadorna move as well

Hitler would invent a wunderwaffe teleport machine

Well , at least they were thinking creatively..well too extremely creatively for their own good but still

@@merdiolu then let's think creatively... The carrier was being built at Kiel, in the Baltic Sea. Meaning that it had to get through either of 2 chokepoints to reach the open sea : either the Kiel canal, assuming the canal's dimensions allow that, or the straits of Denmark. Who says chokepoints means an easy target for air attack. Then, in the North Sea. There's like half the Royal Navy to evade, plus the support of the RAF once spotted. Very high risks of getting sunk, since I don't think Germany would send a large escort for a sold ship. Assuming the Graf Zeppelin makes it to the Atlantic, there is still a lot of hostile ships to avoid. Fuel (already a critical situation for Germany) would also be a major problem since the Graf Zeppelin would litteraly be half the world away from the nearest friendly port. The ship had a theorical range of 14 000 km which might be enough to reach either the southern tip of Africa or South America (Suez and Panama would be closed for obvious reasons) but not enough to reach japanese waters, with still a high risk of being torpedoed on the way. Assuming everything goes well, Japan would then need to send a long range resupply mission through an entire ocean so that the carrier can make it back, through waters they do not control. Or I guess they could try their luck through the frozen Arctic ocean, it almost seems easier all things considered...

This kind of crazy ideas just goes ludicrously well for the Germans. Remember the Sichelschnitt plan or the channel dash?

At Odessa it was even worse as Indie noted back when it happened. The Romanian tactics had not benefited from experience and talented generals like the Germans had and as such were using *actual* WW1 tactics to fight the battle and took staggering losses as a result.

Trench warfare is really just siege warfare on huge scale. It's surprising how similar even ancient accounts of sieges are to WW1.

Strip away all the fancy new petroleum-powered machines and warfare goes back to what it's always been - men picking up weapons, overcoming their fear and charging at another group of men with weapons and hoping their enemy's ability to overcome their fear is slightly less than theirs.

@@BaronBlackMusic Romanians didn't had many heavy artillery guns there and also fewer tanks than Soviets, also even the airforce was more weaker than German force at Sevastopol but one principal problem was the Soviet capacity to supply and even support from the sea. At Sevastopol there were more better fortification, the Soviets had there casemates and bunkers in the caves, someones here when wrote about tactics have no idea about what they comment, what tactics could use against a fortified mountain?

LOL, Norrie was probably thankful for it. "Finally, one less d---ed general to deal with...."

@@Raskolnikov70 😂😂

Good in what way? Doing a good job defending Itself?

This Is exactly how being italian feel for the whole lenght of the war, except for Gazala and El Alamein.

"Lions led by donkeys."

Meanwhile, the French : "First time ?"

@@pierre-mariecaulliez6285 Ah, France's generals...they could've ended the war in Europe if only they'd believed their own intelligence.

Thank God for Monty

Considering the US had already published their Two-Ocean Navy plan, the Japanese had a pretty good idea what was coming their way. They knew they needed all the carriers they could get (and they only have one large carrier, Taiho, currently on the stocks).

@@nicholasconder4703 Their situation certainly was dire, but getting an unfinished German carrier to Japanese waters during war time, is just madness. But I guess the Axis powers are no strangers to madness.

@@rebbeccadickson6099 Well, they could have tried building aircraft carriers out of ice (Project Habakkuk). Actually, I'm surprised the Russians didn't try that one.

@@nicholasconder4703 Actually it was REINFORCED ICE. Not sure what material was used, but definitely more than 'just ice'.

@@gedeon2696 It was pykrete, ice reinforced with sawdust or, in the case of the Mythbusters, newspaper.

Today in "Out of the Closets"

@@yourstruly4817 You can make fun of my fondness for ties all you want, I could not care less. But the Timeghost army is an inclusive one, so take your homophobic bullshit somewhere else

@@gianniverschueren870 Keep doing your thing Gianni. I think most people get a kick out of your tie reviews.

@@gianniverschueren870 This channel does a series called "Out of the Foxholes." There is a chance he was playing off that. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/grmBiM6YsJi8gGw.html

@@lycaonpictus9662 The day Indy, Astrid or Spartacus ask me to stop, I'll stop immediately.

Thanks!

Just give us a couple of quid and we'll call it quits!

Let me guess one of your sources....The Bomber Command War Diaries: An Operational Reference Book, 1939-1945 by Chris Everitt and Martin Middlebrook

@@jpjpjp453 Oh, yeah forgot to put the sources at the bottom. Same ones as last time.

@@kellyshistory306 Do you happen to know the impact of firebombing of city centers on industrial production? From what I have read, industrial production mostly recovered within a few weeks, so did these attacks only cause civilian suffering for no practical gain or was there a sizeable impact? I believe Bomber Command spent over 40 percent of its entire tonnage dropped on burning city centers (please correct me if I'm wrong) Just watched your video on Operation Millenium, excellent work! Subscribed!

@@michaelkovacic2608 Its really difficult to know exactly how effective the area bombing campaign was; the British Government only funded an inadequate examination of it (Churchill seemed to want to avoid the topic after the bad PR Dresden created), and the Americans (United States Strategic Bombing Survey) only briefly looked at it because they were more interested in their own precision campaign. I've also seen an argument made that Solly Zuckerman, a British official on both the British and US bombing surveys and a proponent of precision bombing during the war, used his influence to downplay the impact of area bombing in the British and US reports on Allied bombing. I don't know if that is actually true though. There were area's that the firebombing campaign impacted, the US bombing survey noted German steel production plunged in 1943 from planned levels, and that it was solely due to the RAF's bombing of the German cities in the Ruhr where steel production was centered. Also, a number of British area raids managed to plaster German tank factories, gutting production. Notably raids on Berlin in November 1943 hit the plants making StuG assault guns, gutting the factories and basically preventing the production of about 1000 tanks (compared to planned production). On the other hand, the German economy was largely able to absorb the blows and production of all kinds increased as Albert Speer rationalized the mess that was the early war German economy. On the whole, whatever effect area bombing did have, it was much less than hoped for by those planning and running the campaign. There were effects, but much more was expected, so I think it must rated as a disappointment. My own personal view is the main benefit of the Area Bombing campaign is that it built RAF Bomber Command into a truly formidable force that was able to return to precision bombing in 1944 and 1945, where it played an outsized role in destroying the German oil industry, transportation industry, and supported effective the ground armies as they pushed into Germany.

@@michaelkovacic2608 Also glad you liked the animation. Thanks for the subscription!

Well, I did live in Prague for a couple years in the early 1990's...

British army is vastly overrated in my opinion. RN and RAF performed really well and did their job, while the army gets smacked again and again and again.

@@michaelkovacic2608 I'm not sure British army is overrated since I've never heard anyone say "British army is good".

The British Army held firm at Narvik and would have destroyed the German forces there if the wider circumstances (ie. RN and/or RAF support) had allowed. The British Army line was also not broken in France or Belgium. They retreated in good order to Dunkirk as their allies collapsed and surrendered around them. The RAF and RN stayed home from that one too...

@Cal not sure it was Haig’s doing, but the peninsular war and ww1 were the only times I’ll say the british army was top notch

@@timcahill4676 I dont know much about peninsular war, but I dont think there was anything sepcial about British army in WW1. By "top notch" I guess you mean among the best - maybe I missunderstood that. I dont think in WW1 British army was better than German, French, Austrian or any of the Balkan armies - remember they had just fought two major modern wars and had experienced soldiers, NCOs and officers. Technically that places it among the top several armies in the world - but the standard was so bloody low in the rest of the world.

Actually they found the wreck of another plane returning from Second Ploesti Raid shot down in 1943 , it is displayed in Istanbul Modern Sciences museum today. Their crews were rescued and treated very well by Turks before repadiated back to Allies via Syria and Iraq

Yeah, since the airports used were in Egypt I wondered immediately if Turkey airspace was used. In '43 when they flew from Libya they didn't cross Turkey though.

Turkey allowed Axis warships through the Bosphorus, a major reason for the decline in Soviet-Turkish relations during the war. At this point the Turks were more afraid of Germany and allowed the warships through to keep the Axis off their case, but the USSR government was angered by it.

Was there a notion of national airspace back then in the same wa we have it today? I mean most world's countries didn't have RADAR and half of the world had only a couple squadrons of WW1 or mid-war era planes. They wouldn't even know someone was flying overhead if they flew high enough.

@@SuperLusername of course there was. Switzerland had many incursions of Allied bombers flying raids into Germany, and several times had downed Allied warplanes. Also it got bombed (by accident supposedly) by Allies, although it may well have been fake accidents in order to "tell2 the swiss to not fuss bout the bombers flying over...

Thank you for your support! Glad you enjoy our content.

Precisely. Nobody at that time could predict the future. The Axis seem to be on top in North Africa and the USSR. The Japanese advances have been stooped but no one knows if they will be defeated or how long it will take.

I think all of the leaders of the warring countries knew which way the war would go by this time. Even if they hadn't figured it out back in 1941 when the Wehrmacht got shredded and failed to reach Moscow, they definitely would have known after Midway. Both Germany and Japan had very limited time and resources, they had to win fast or the war would turn into a grinding stalemate which the allies knew they'd lose once they had to battle against American industrial capacity. Once they both failed to win their quick victories, it was over for them.

The only people who knew how desperate the German supply situation was getting where the Germans. And they weren't going to tell their enemies.

Apart from a few blips, mainly defeat in front of Moscow, the Germans still looked pretty unbeatable at this point.

A German poster, issued sometime around September 1942, showed a map of Europe with most of it under German control, right up to Stalingrad, and had the heading "The New Europe Is Invincible!" It was a sort of depiction of the high-water mark of the Third Reich. In reality, final victory had eluded its grasp nearly a year earlier.

The Tommies have smashed our washing line again.😂

Well to be fair to Manstein, he if going against a better organized enemy in a fortified defense line. Rommel is just sealclubbing

@@SuperLusername Rommel: *Beating the shit out of the British in North Africa* Manstein: *Beating his head over & over again until Sevastopol falls*

Do have any info on Greek SAS?

@@nickdanger3802 Well not that much. I know that there was a greek regiment in North Africa and they may participate in a battle that may happen in El Alamein. But apart from that I know that they were saved from action because they were destined to "suppress" The "communist danger" Back home

"The Sacred Band or Sacred Squadron (Greek: Ιερός Λόχος) was a Greek special forces unit formed in 1942 in the Middle East, composed entirely of Greek officers and officer cadets under the command of Col. Christodoulos Tsigantes. It fought alongside the SAS in the Western Desert and the Aegean, as well as with General Leclerc's Free French Forces in Tunisia." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacred_Band_(World_War_II)

Thank you for your support!

As someone said above, have a neutral nation fly their flag on it.

Many believe Himmler ordered the doctors not to treat Heyrich's wounds, he saw Heydrich as a threat to his power base and wanted him out of the way. If the surgeons had treated Heydrich they'd've been frogmarched off to the firing squad.

@Greg Chiropolos you're very welcome

To be fair Italians failed in every campaign they waged and French were utterly defeated and theirt goverment surrendered. British Army was being led by mostly idiots but they are still in field and wrapped a few campaigns like East Africa , Syria etc and both Royal Navy and RAF are performing well so far.

@@merdiolu wtf

@Cal Polish were the first to crack into 'enigma'. It was their work that gave the british a good start in dealing with enigma. As for "the british were excellant planners" = Dieppe Raid !! It was Britain's "Colonials" that did the hard/dirty work !!

yep, that's why Rommel become so legendary, as the best general in WW2. Next von Mannstein, Guderian and Kesselring.

@@michaelschmid9567 Rommel is vastly overrated. He faced the W-Allies and was a glory hound, so we know him.

@@PalleRasmussen I disagree. No other general showed such an impressive individual military instinct, as Rommel did. Show me an other UK or US general, who had such skills and instinct.

@@michaelschmid9567 I think Von manstein is the best and then Rommel and guderian and then Gothard Heinrici and Walther Model they are truly Underrated masters of defense

@@michaelschmid9567 Rommel's fame was vastly inflated with wartime and post war propaganda especially in English speaking nations due to varierty of reasons. After June 1942 , he did not win a single battle (except Battle of Kasserine Pass where German effort strategically failed anyhow after routing the opposition operationally) and only displayed as romantic doomed honorable indefatigable foe because he and Kesselring were only generals Western Allies faced till 1944 summer.

It would be Volksgranate in this case

Yeah I heard that too, didn't notice it the first time round. Sharp hearing there!

You have such sharp hearing that your ancestors must've been prison guards at Stalag Luft.

Thank you for your support!

Don't be. Until Alexander / Montgomery duo come in and sack whole donkey brigade (Auchinleck , Corbett , Eric Dorman Smith , Schaeffer , Norrie , Messervy , Lumsden ) leading them , entire Middle East Command and Eighth Army were under command of utter morons , and morons is the exact description I choose about them without apology (at least Gott fell in action with honor and Ritchie was picked as a scapegoat by Auchinleck to be fired after Tobruk fell to mask the fact that Auchinleck appointed Ritchie and kept him in that position he was not accustomed to despite objections of his own staff , intending "to hold Ritchie's hand" as if he was a toddler , undermine his field commanders authority and command the army all the way from Cairo. The cheatau generalship of worst kind)

@@merdiolu and even then, 8th army relied heavily on superior numbers. I have a lot of respect for the RN and RAF, but aside from operations like Compass, the British army on the whole was pretty much a joke. The other services contributed much more to victory in WW2 than the army did, despite being a heavy burden on the very limited British manpower.

@@michaelkovacic2608 British Army actually had some good coups despite its small size and convential and stupid commanders , like SAS (on 7-8 June 192 SAS British and Free French teams destroyed 50+ German aircraft on night raids in Crete for example) but the command of it in general is learning and reforming very slow and painfully , eliminating incompatents too slowly , suffering wasterful , excessive casaulties

@@merdiolu to be fair Ritchie actually went on to be a competent Corp commander in France in 44-45. Monty gave him a chance at redemption because being sacked by the Auk wasn't a black mark in Montys eyes

An easy way to discalim responsibility for the death and damage a weapon causes.

Musso waves from the sidelines

True. When Panzer Army Afrika repair services and shops were destroyed during Second Battle of Alamein in October November 1942 the tables turned other way around when Eighth Army recovery and repair services recovered and repaired 350 of 500 knocked out tanks within one week